Patch 4.2 - PTR Build 14241 - New Items and Spell Changes

There was a small patch on the PTR today -- and we mean really small. The only item added was a new staff to Ragnaros' loot table: Sho'ravon, Greatstaff of Annihilation. The new pet biscuits are also now Kibler's Bits which now make your pets bigger, presumably it works on vanity pets as well.

There were also a couple of spell changes that we've posted below for you to look over.

Arcane Blast: Blasts the target with energy, dealing 1711 to 19871625 to 1887 Arcane damage. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage of Arcane Blast and Arcane Explosion is increased by 10%, Arcane Blast casting time is reduced by 0.1 sec and Arcane Blast mana cost is increased by 150%. Effect stacks up to 4 times and lasts 6 sec or until any Arcane damage spell except Arcane Blast or Arcane Explosion is cast.

Blessing of Khaz'goroth: Consume all Titanic Power to increase your critical strike rating, haste rating, or mastery rating by 306 per Titanic Power accumulated, lasting 15 sec. The apparatus will always choose the highest of those three ratings.

Blessing of Khaz'goroth: Consume all Titanic Power to increase your critical strike rating, haste rating, or mastery rating by 345 per Titanic Power accumulated, lasting 15 sec. The apparatus will always choose the highest of those three ratings.

Hungerer: When using an ability causes your Energy or Focus to fall below 20% of your maximum, you will gainYour melee and ranged attacks have a chance to grant you 1532 haste rating for 15 sec.This cannot occur more often than once per minute.

Hungerer: When using an ability causes your Energy or Focus to fall below 20% of your maximum, you will gainYour melee and ranged attacks have a chance to grant you 1730 haste rating for 15 sec.This cannot occur more often than once per minute.

Roaring Flame: The Roaring Flames inflict 9750 to 10250 Fire damage and an additional 7800 to 8200 Fire damage every 1 sec for 4 sec. Additionally the ReverberatingRoaring Flames increase the chance you will be heard!

: The Roaring Flames inflict 9750 to 10250 Fire damage and an additional 7800 to 8200 Fire damage every 1 sec for 4 sec. Additionally the ReverberatingRoaring Flames increase the chance you will be heard!

: The Roaring Flames inflict 19500 to 20500 Fire damage and an additional 9750 to 10250 Fire damage every 1 sec for 4 sec. Additionally the ReverberatingRoaring Flames increase the chance you will be heard!

: The Roaring Flames inflict 19500 to 20500 Fire damage and an additional 9750 to 10250 Fire damage every 1 sec for 4 sec. Additionally the ReverberatingRoaring Flames increase the chance you will be heard!

Comment by Interest

To be honest it won't do much. Keep in mind traps are properly scaling with attack power as well. What Black Arrow needs, to make it definitive in its use is the following:

-More ticks (for LnL)-More lethality (it needs to outparse most other abilities Hunter. It's a 31 point talent for god's sake. Haunt does more damage than the entire DoT. Chimera Shot does like double of the entire DoT, and so on and so forth.)-Another special effect. It's a Shadow DoT that procs LnL. Doesn't do much more than that and Explosive Trap does it better at a lower focus cost.-All of the above.

Comment by Rokrekler

on 2011-06-06T11:15:32-05:00

For me "Gives me more reason to use it" means that I'll actually prefer it above the fire traps so I don't have to waste a Trap Launcher on them. Targeting takes away more time for me than the dps loss of using Black Arrow.

Comment by matheus314

on 2011-06-06T12:47:31-05:00

Oh good. They finally got the sense to buff Black ArrowNice. I like the Black Arrow buff. Gives me more reason to use it.

To be honest it won't do much. Keep in mind traps are properly scaling with attack power as well. What Black Arrow needs, to make it definitive in its use is the following:

-More ticks (for LnL)-More lethality (it needs to outparse most other abilities Hunter. It's a 31 point talent for god's sake. Haunt does more damage than the entire DoT. Chimera Shot does like double of the entire DoT, and so on and so forth.)-Another special effect. It's a Shadow DoT that procs LnL. Doesn't do much more than that and Explosive Trap does it better at a lower focus cost.-All of the above.

Its a 40% damage increase, guys.

Comment by Hugomes

on 2011-06-06T12:48:17-05:00

I agree with Interest on this one, for a 31 talent skill it's pretty weak when compared to other, Like Chimera Shot.

If Black Arrow would be redesigned to have on hit damage and after that leave the DOT, I think it would deserve the place it's in right now.And giving it this would also make for a bigger hit using survival's mastery bonus, and since it's on a 30 sec CD (24 talented) it wouldn't feel OP IMHO, just right.

Oh well the dreams of a hunter as they say :3

Comment by dascylus

on 2011-06-06T13:16:55-05:00

Jeez... aren't there enough caster weapons in Firelands already? Along with the legendary, that makes it the 4th caster dps staff and the 6th caster dps weapon overall in raid. I think Blizzard is going to need to remove some for a little loot balancing.

Comment by Interest

on 2011-06-06T14:04:40-05:00

Oh good. They finally got the sense to buff Black ArrowNice. I like the Black Arrow buff. Gives me more reason to use it.

To be honest it won't do much. Keep in mind traps are properly scaling with attack power as well. What Black Arrow needs, to make it definitive in its use is the following:

-More ticks (for LnL)-More lethality (it needs to outparse most other abilities Hunter. It's a 31 point talent for god's sake. Haunt does more damage than the entire DoT. Chimera Shot does like double of the entire DoT, and so on and so forth.)-Another special effect. It's a Shadow DoT that procs LnL. Doesn't do much more than that and Explosive Trap does it better at a lower focus cost.-All of the above.

Its a 40% damage increase, guys.And Chimera Shot got a 50% damage increase at one point.

Black Arrow won't just be saved by a damage buff unless each tick starts hitting as hard as a Warlock's Corruption, and even then it'll be weaker...than a baseline SPELL.

Comment by majinash

on 2011-06-06T14:21:54-05:00

and even then it'll be weaker...than a baseline SPELL.

You can't compare talents and spells in a vacuum. If you want black arrow to hit as hard as corruption, you'll have to give warlocks an auto attack that can do thousands of DPS.

And These days a 31 point talent doesn't seem to be the be all and end all of the talent tree. Dispersion is a 31 point talent, and no one complains that it is lower on the priority list than mind blast, a baseline spell. Guardian spirit is great but I'd give it up before Greater heal, a baseline spell.

Comment by Kazlehoff

on 2011-06-06T15:33:16-05:00

so................... trash is trash now?

Comment by Kanariya

on 2011-06-06T16:27:55-05:00

and even then it'll be weaker...than a baseline SPELL.

You can't compare talents and spells in a vacuum. If you want black arrow to hit as hard as corruption, you'll have to give warlocks an auto attack that can do thousands of DPS.

And These days a 31 point talent doesn't seem to be the be all and end all of the talent tree. Dispersion is a 31 point talent, and no one complains that it is lower on the priority list than mind blast, a baseline spell. Guardian spirit is great but I'd give it up before Greater heal, a baseline spell.

This. It shouldn't even be ticking as hard as Corruption anyway, you're not a caster.

Comment by milalyr

on 2011-06-06T16:33:35-05:00

So still the only new two-hander for hunters in Firelands is apparently mostly only for druids since its bonus vanity effect is for druids.

I mean, not to mention I have to kill Ragnaros just for a shot at a new ranged weapon. >:| At least when I had to kill Atramedes 20 times to get him to drop his bow, it was still within progression raiding time-frame. (This is mostly aggravated by the fact that I will start the patch by crafting the Alterac Swiss Cheese gun, and ugh, I really hate guns. BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM.)

Also: Time to farm Buzzard Meat! Yay Kibler's Bits change!

Comment by Interest

on 2011-06-06T16:49:12-05:00

and even then it'll be weaker...than a baseline SPELL.

You can't compare talents and spells in a vacuum. If you want black arrow to hit as hard as corruption, you'll have to give warlocks an auto attack that can do thousands of DPS.

And These days a 31 point talent doesn't seem to be the be all and end all of the talent tree. Dispersion is a 31 point talent, and no one complains that it is lower on the priority list than mind blast, a baseline spell. Guardian spirit is great but I'd give it up before Greater heal, a baseline spell.

This is true, although your examples aren't that good for a really big reason, the spells have different effects.:

Dispersion has a different effect that makes it not a rotational spell, but rather a mana cooldown (like Evocation) and also a powerful defensive cooldown. In terms of raw power of a 31-pointer, it's alright. (Also Mind Blast is a nuke spell).

Guardian Spirit increases healing done on the target. It also gives them a "second chance" during the time that bonus healing is active. It's also instant. Quite potent for a 31-pointer. You can save someone's life with it as opposed to Greater Heal (lol "your target is already dead."), which is a nuke healing spell.

Black Arrow and Corruption are essentially both Shadow damage over time effects. They both proc some significant effect (if you don't call Eradication in Affliction significant I suggest getting your head checked), but Black Arrow is inferior because of more reasons than just damage:

It has a cooldown: And I wish you luck finding other DoT spells with a cooldown as long as Black Arrow. There are few if any (None that I can think of, except maybe Outbreak...)

It is (nearly/practically) inferior to another baseline HUNTER ability: I guess I shouldn't have compared apples and oranges, but when a baseline Hunter ability that is on the same cooldown category (Explosive Trap) as Black Arrow is pretty much better, you know something is wrong.Without talents, it's a generic damage over time: In short, it's a dispellable magic DoT. The talents that support it are literally required to even make it useful. Numerous other 31-pointers are pretty potent without the supporting talents. Haunt would probably still be used by an Affliction Warlock because of the passive effect it can cause. Feral Druid will continue to Berserk even if they didn't get bonus maximum energy from it, and so on. Granted, there are some other pretty garbage 31-pointers (lol, Earthquake).

Oh also, casters have something called a filler nuke. It is practically the equivalent of autoattack + any filler a melee or hunter may have (like Slam for Arms Warriors, Steady/Cobra Shot for Hunters). Granted, there are problems with the discrepancies between the two (interrupts screw filler nukes for casters, for instance).

In short: Black Arrow is useless. This buff won't fix the fact it is useless, unfortunately. Sorry if you got some misunderstanding from my comparison. Heck, for your sake, I chose to omit some parts of the comparison for your sakes. I don't know why Blizzard removed the "bonus damage" effect from it (because that actually made it remotely useful) without compensating the ability with some other effect.

This. It shouldn't even be ticking as hard as Corruption anyway, you're not a caster.

Why shouldn't it? Seems some melee based DoTs tick pretty hard (diseases are an exception, but they greatly increase damage done by various DK abilities and have a lot of additional effects based on talents. It makes Black Arrow look even more pathetic than it already is).

Give me one good reason why. The "you're not a caster" argument is honestly no excuse.

Edit: I think I spent too much time on this.

Comment by Bl4ckSh33p

on 2011-06-07T04:20:51-05:00

They did not change Sporeling Snack yet. Still useless after removing pet happiness.Hope there will be another use for it, soon.

Comment by DuckieBaggins

on 2011-06-07T06:37:13-05:00

Just made some Kibler's Bits on the PTR, and they do not work with Companion pets.

Comment by zids

on 2011-06-07T07:39:52-05:00

Why in God's name they keep nerfing druids? Enough!

Comment by Kazlehoff

on 2011-06-07T10:50:17-05:00

Thrash is the first real druid nerf. all the rest of it was a redction of our rediculous scaling. when i can pump out almost as much DPS as my raids bottom preforming DPSers (and there not bad.) theres an issue.

however the nref to thrash kinda looks like a big, painful nerf. gonna be changing my AOE rotation probably after this nerf.

Comment by Azrile

on 2011-06-07T13:45:37-05:00

Thrash is the first real druid nerf. all the rest of it was a redction of our rediculous scaling. when i can pump out almost as much DPS as my raids bottom preforming DPSers (and there not bad.) theres an issue.

however the nref to thrash kinda looks like a big, painful nerf. gonna be changing my AOE rotation probably after this nerf.

Yep, and our aoe damage and threat scales much better than any other tank, which means the numbers they use to balance us on one tier, will have to be adjusted when any new tier is released.

It is kinda the same thing with Arcane mages. Because of the interaction of INT with their mastery... they will also need to have either their mastery or their spells nerfed every tier.

Comment by Sinespe

on 2011-06-08T02:12:17-05:00

My old GM will want that staff. He has a macro for activating his Fire Elemental totem, which causes him to /s Reth reth reth!